I’ll die with osbad on that hill. The comparison of painting vs. photograph is  a good one and many of those young people who might not agree with us are in for a rude awakening when all their techie screens go bye-bye one fine day and they won’t know what to do without all their electronic crutches. They’re already incapable of giving correct change without the computer register telling them how much.

Alternative Armies are another good, more current example – you can still buy most of them new. They’re certainly not the most finely sculpted, but they’re fun and easy to paint, I think they look very appropriate for their respective scenarios – Flintloque, Slaughterloo, Erin, etc. – and while they are not cheap, you are buying a solid chunk of METAL. That Östarian Hussar weighs more than the entire box set of Space Marines and ain’t gonna break so easily. The bayonets are a little fragile, but such is the nature of wargames bayonets….

My figure collection goes back to late 60s /early 70s Airfix and Elastolin, my fantasy collection to 70s and 80s Minifigs, Ral Partha and Grenadier, my (incomplete) White Dwarf library starts at number 25 and stops at 300.

I wish there was a time machine that could take me back to the 80s and leave me there, I’d be on that thing like shot from a cannon. I feel sorry for people who think of 6th edition WHFB as ‘Oldhammer’, everything after 5th is Newhammer to me. Don’t get me started on the re-issue of Warhammer Skirmish code name A$$ of Sickmar. I also feel sorry for people who think of stuff like Nirvana or Stone Temple Pilots as ‘classic rock’, but that’s a whole other story…..